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Emerging roles of centromeric RNAs in centromere formation and function

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Abstract

Background

Centromeres are specialized chromosomal domains involved in kinetochore formation and faithful chromosome segregation. Despite a high level of functional conservation, centromeres are not identified by DNA sequences, but by epigenetic means. Universally, centromeres are typically formed on highly repetitive DNA, which were previously considered to be silent. However, recent studies have shown that transcription occurs in this region, known as centromeric-derived RNAs (cenRNAs). CenRNAs that contribute to fundamental aspects of centromere function have been recently investigated in detail. However, the distribution, behavior and contributions of centromeric transcripts are still poorly understood.

Objective

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the roles of cenRNAs in centromere formation and function.

Methods

We describe the structure and DNA sequence of centromere from yeast to human. In addition, we briefly introduce the roles of cenRNAs in centromere formation and function, kinetochore structure, accurate chromosome segregation, and pericentromeric heterochromatin assembly. Centromeric circular RNAs (circRNAs) and R-loops are rising stars in centromere function. CircRNAs have been successfully identified in various species with the assistance of high-throughput sequencing and novel computational approaches for non-polyadenylated RNA transcripts. Centromeric R-loops can be identified by the single-strand DNA ligation-based library preparation technique. But the molecular features and function of these centromeric R-loops and circRNAs are still being investigated.

Conclusion

In this review, we summarize recent findings on the epigenetic regulation of cenRNAs across species, which would provide useful information about cenRNAs and interesting hints for further studies.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31920103006 and 31630049) and a National Science Foundation plant genome grant (IOS-1444514).

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  1. Qian Liu and Yang Liu contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Innovation Academy for Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Qian Liu, Yang Liu, Qinghua Shi, Handong Su, Chunhui Wang & Fangpu Han

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Qian Liu, Yang Liu, Chunhui Wang & Fangpu Han

  3. College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Handong Su

  4. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri at Columbia, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    James A. Birchler

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  1. Qian Liu
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Liu, Q., Liu, Y., Shi, Q. et al. Emerging roles of centromeric RNAs in centromere formation and function. Genes Genom 43, 217–226 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-021-01041-y

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